Air-Powered Cars
Hybrids
New Web Site Unveils Clean Car Ratings for 2001 Models
CLEANER COMMUTER CHOICES DETAILED ONLINE
Biodiesel & Flexcars
Personal Rapid Transit [PRT] systems
Diesel-Electric Hypercar
Amory Lovins
X-Prize: 250 mpg car
British inventor unveils car he claims is world's most fuel efficient: 8,000 mpg
Grown Fuel
LINKS to related web sites about hybrids & green cars
Hover Car
http://www.flixxy.com/volkswagen-levitating-car.htm#.UZRYJKjn-M8
The Volkswagen Hover Concept Car is a pod-like zero-emissions vehicle
that uses electromagnetic road networks to float above the road.
Air-Powered Cars
Air-Powered Car Coming to U.S. in 2009 to 2010 - Zero Pollution Motors
- 1000-Mile Range - Popular Mechanics
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4251491.html?series=19
Compressed-Air-Powered Car: 2013
This five-seater car runs on compressed air, has zero pollution, very low running costsand will cost about $15,000.
http://www.flixxy.com/zero-pollution-automobile.htm#.UZRdt6jn-M8
Driving Green:
Ultimate Guide to Eco-Friendly Cars
http://www.driving.co.uk/car-clinic/driving-green/
New Technologies
"New technologies will change how we live and how
we drive our cars which all will have the beneficial effect of improving
the environment and in my judgment we need to set aside whether or not
greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects
and focus on the technologies that will enable us to live better lives
and at the same time protect the environment."
-- President Bush, in response to Al Gore's documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth
Tips for Green Commuting
http://cheapautoinsurance.net/green-commute-drivers-and-vehicles/
Is Ford Aware?
Environmentally friendly vehicle alternatives are being produced today by Japanese auto manufacturers, and have met with great success in the marketplace. While fully electric, propane, ethanol, and natural gas models are rarely bought as the primary family vehicle, the new gasoline-electric hybrids are receiving enthusiastic consumer response. Ford Motor Company has recently shown increased concern for the environment yet the company still does not offer practical, environmentally friendly hybrid cars, relying instead on ever-larger SUVs for their profits.
Although Ford is producing ''The Escape,'' a hybrid SUV scheduled for release in 2003, most Americans drive sedans. A hybrid sedan would be more practical in design, more fuel-efficient, and will have less of a negative impact on the environment than an SUV hybrid. E-mail Ford Motors and tell them that there is a sizable, genuine market for practical smart-cars.
The next X-Prize: How about a 250 m.p.g. car?
(May 7, 2006)
The challenge: Build the world's most fuel-efficient production car - one that gets maybe 250 miles per gallon and causes little or no pollution. The payoff: prize money from the group that awarded $10 million for the world's first private spaceflight two years ago. "Ford's Model T got 25 miles per gallon, and today a Ford Explorer gets 18 miles per gallon," says Peter Diamandis, X-Prize Foundation chairman. "We believe the time is ripe for a fundamental change in what we drive — and we believe an X-Prize in this area can drive a substantial change."
(May 12)
A British inventor unveiled a car he claims is the world's most fuel efficient -- capable of doing 8,000 miles (12,875 km) to the gallon (4.5 litres). Andy Green, 45, spent just 2,000 pounds (2,925 euros or 3,732 US dollars) over two years creating the three-wheeled contraption in his spare time. The car, named "TeamGreen," is 3.1 metres (10 feet 2 inches) long and a mere 0.6 metres (2 feet) wide, weighing just 30 kilograms (four stone).
- Our current gas-guzzling vehicles are contributing to an alarming increase in greenhouse gases and acceleration of global warming. This is largely due to the popularity of SUVs and other trucks that are not required to meet the same strict emissions standards as most cars.
- An estimated 14.6 million people in the United States have asthma (one-third of whom are children) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported a 61 percent increase between 1982 and 1994. These conditions are often caused and aggravated by smog. All of the primary components of smog are present in auto emissions.
- Gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles combine a gasoline engine with an electric motor and a battery. The battery is automatically recharged while you drive (no plugs!), and a highly efficient gasoline engine gets its power the old-fashion way—from the pump.
- Hybrid vehicles could save drivers as much as 50% or more on their yearly gasoline costs. Hybrid vehicles are twice as fuel efficient as regular cars and emit far fewer emissions.
- Environment-friendly alternatives to hybrids are impractical for most drivers. The electric car, for example, rarely has more than an 80-100 mile driving range before requiring a charge. In addition, natural gas, propane, and ethanol vehicle drivers find few gas stations that offer these fuels, making these vehicles much less appealing.
- Toyota and Honda are no longer the only auto manufacturers that currently offer hybrid vehicles. These vehicles are highly fuel-efficient, averaging 60 miles to the gallon and more. Once again Japanese manufacturers are leading the auto industry.
- American automakers have not followed Japan’s hybrid-vehicle lead and are years behind in this exciting new market. American automakers have chosen this course because they don’t think that there is a genuine demand for environment-friendly cars by American motorists.
Green Car Campaign
950 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
http://www.greencar.org/
Links to Hybrid Sites:
- http://hybridcars.com/
- http://www.greencar.org/
- http://www.futurecars.com
- http://www.hybridcenter.org
- http://www.besthybridvehicles.com/
- http://www.hybridcars.com/newsletter.html
- The site below is a condensed summary of hybrid options:
- http://www.buyautoinsurance.com/lean-mean-green-machines/
Best Hybrid Vehicles
http://www.besthybridvehicles.com
Information and resources for Hybrid Vehicles.
Lots of information for anyone who is interested in purchasing a Hybrid Vehicle of any kind.
Hybrid Cars Newsletter
The Hybrid Cars Newsletter is a free email-based newsletter discussing the latest news and information in the world of hybrid gas-electric vehicles.
Subscribe and unsubscribe at
http://www.hybridcars.com/newsletter.html
HTTP://WWW.HYBRIDCENTER.ORG
HTTP://WWW.HYBRIDCENTER.ORG
is the place to go for information about hybrid vehicles. It combines scientifically-sound,
solution-oriented research with comprehensive consumer information, helping
drivers and policymakers alike separate hybrid fact from fiction.
Toyota Prius Hybrid
We run an independent site dedicated to the Toyota Prius Hybrid Car.
The aim is to give visitors unbiased information on this model from
the viewpoint of an ordinary car user.
http://www.myhybridcar.net
New Web Site Unveils Clean Car Ratings for 2001 Models
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest environmental ratings for new cars are available on ForMyWorld,
a new Web site from Environmental Defense and the National Wildlife Federation.
The ratings, from the American Council
for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), assign each type of auto a
Green Score based on fuel economy, tailpipe emissions and other factors.
The score enables users to compare the environmental impacts of similar
types of vehicles.
Read the release:
http://www.ProcessRequest.com/apps/redir.asp?link=XbccecegCB,YccfdhifgDI
Visit Buying Green on ForMyWorld:
http://www.ProcessRequest.com/apps/redir.asp?link=XbcceceiCD,YccfdhifgDI
Look at this site for green cars:
http://www.greencar.org
CLEANER COMMUTER CHOICES DETAILED ONLINE
WASHINGTON, DC, March 1, 2002 (ENS) - A new website offers information on how employers can offer commuter choices that are better for the environment. The website has been launched by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation to support the Commuter Choice Leadership Initiative, the agencies' first business/government partnership to reduce air pollution and global warming associated with vehicle use.
The goal of the initiative is to reduce the traffic and air pollution of 15 million cars. U.S. employers can contribute to improving energy resources, reducing air pollution and improving public health through this voluntary program, the EPA says. Participating employers commit to offering a number of commuter choices, such as car or van pools, telecommuting, and guaranteed rides home for workers using public transit who have a personal emergency or must work unscheduled overtime.
The new website provides information on:
- what employers need to become a Commuter Choice Employer and meet the National Standard of Excellence for commuter benefits;
- how U.S. employers can save hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, parking facility expenses and employee turnover costs
- how employers can save their employees hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and transportation costs.
http://www.commuterchoice.gov
Did you know?
- About 2000 people in the Seattle area currently fill there engines with Biodiesel. The cost of diesel is about $2.79 a gallon and Biodiesel is $2.95, making it a lot more competitive than it has been previously. There are currently two filling stations, Dr. Dan's in Ballard and Laurelhurst Oil near the U-Village. http://biodieselblog.com/2005/05/seattle-update.shtml
- Seattle based Flexcar is the nation's first and largest car-sharing service. Members use automated, self-service reservation and vehicle access systems to drive any of dozens of new, fuel-efficient Flexcar cars, trucks, and minivans located across several metropolitan regions. http://www.flexcar.com/default.asp
- If your are interested in transportation alternatives visit Transportation Choices Coalition at: www.transportationchoices.org/
“We’ll have fun, fun, fun till her Daddy takes the T-Bird away”.
- The Beach Boys
On any given day headlines might say (a) the price
of oil is going up, (b) the price of oil is going down. Most people
don't have the time to sit down and actually sort through everything. So
there's a media coverage issue there. In other words, there's no
foundation for agreement (or belief) for most people. Without strongly
held convictions, you don't have activism. Most dramatic change occurs
when the objective conditions become so intolerable they force activity
on a sufficient number of people to make the change. That hasn't happened
yet with global warming or with oil depletion. But when faced with hard
evidence or an impact that affects us directly, we can change course rapidly
in this country. It happened after the first oil crises. It happened in
California after the major blackout, voluntary measures cut electricity
consumption to the point where we didn't have a repeat. It's starting
to happen with auto purchases (sales of full-size SUVs dropping).
One of the tricks in building awareness and active
responses to global warming and depletion is to make it more immediate.
One way it becomes more immediate for people is for them to understand
what others are doing and why. Ask around, I bet you'll find
someone you know who has made a switch.
So back to passenger vehicles. What do you do with your old Subaru
Outback when you can't afford a new hybrid or a diesel? Vehicle maintenance
and driver behavior play very important roles in maximizing fuel efficiency
and minimizing emissions in older cars. Keep the tires at the right pressure,
keep the filters clean, the engine tuned, and so on. Basic stuff.
In terms of driving, you can make a big difference
by not speeding. Studies have estimated that on the highway, some 50 percent
of the energy required to keep rolling is aimed at overcoming aerodynamic
drag. As speed increases, the aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance
increase. Cut the speed, conserve fuel. A rule of thumb says that an increase
in passenger car speed from 65 mph to 70 mph typically results in a 10
percent decrease in fuel economy. The 10 percent decrease is not
a linear relationship -- there is an increasingly greater increase in fuel
consumption as speed increases. The 55 mph speed limit was originally
established 30 years ago in response to the set of oil crises then.
In traffic, you can cut your engine at traffic lights, or if you're
stopped for more than a few seconds. As an example, the Japanese
government is taking a campaign for such manual "idling stop" from buses
and taxis and other commercial vehicles to the general car-owning population
in an effort to save fuel and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. In
tests run by the government, idling-stop reduced fuel consumption by 13.4
percent. We are now seeing automatic stop-start systems appear in
even non-hybrid new cars.
How quickly do people worldwide need to change their
consumptive nature in order to stop the wrecking ball of unsustainability?
A useful perspective comes from the Hirsch report, prepared for the
Department of Energy, on strategies for mitigating the impact of depletion:
Waiting until world oil production peaks before taking crash program
action leaves the world with a significant liquid-fuel deficit for more
than two decades.
Initiating a mitigation crash program 10 years before world oil peaking
helps considerably but still leaves a liquid-fuels shortfall roughly a
decade after the time that oil would have peaked.
Initiating a mitigation crash program 20 years before
peaking appears to offer the possibility of avoiding a world liquid-fuels
shortfall for the forecast period.
So urgency varies with assumption of the date of the actual onset of
depletion. If we actually hit peak production within the next year
or so, as many are increasingly thinking, we're in for a rough decade at
the minimum, more likely two. And that's in the scenario of a peaceful,
rational response to depletion. A possible worst case scenario would
be a bloody series of resource wars, expending state treasure and lives
in pursuit of a waning resource.
Information, in part, was taken from Grist and Mike Milllikin, publisher
of green-car blog.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/
For comprehensive information on alternative fuels and vehicles that
use them visit:
http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/index.html
- Personal Rapid Transit [PRT] systems represent a revolution in urban transit. They are the only transit systems which offer many of the advantages of the automobile and thus are the only transit systems that will get large numbers of people to use them instead of their automobiles. Go to http://www.taxi2000.com and http://www.skywebexpress.com/
- A popular PRT implementation idea is SkyTran. Go to http://www.SkyTran.net
- Take a look at the first PRT implementation that is being constructed in Great Britain: http://atsltd.co.uk
Jamais Cascio
Accelerated Composites, a startup in Carlsbad, California, is now assembling a new diesel-electric hybrid of its own design, made of high-end composite materials and using supercapacitors instead of batteries. Like the Honda Insight, it will seat two. Accelerated Composites expects the vehicle, called the Aptera, to cost around $20,000.
Estimate mileage: 330 miles per gallon at 65 miles per hour.
That's not a typo. The combination of super-streamlined shape, ultra low-weight materials, and high-output supercapacitors gives the design incredible efficiency. And because the composite production process developed by Accelerated Composites is faster and more efficient than previous methods, the overall cost of the vehicle can be startlingly low.
A quick glance at the image will reveal another aspect of the Aptera design: it's a three-wheel vehicle, and that means (along with its sub-1500 pound weight) it qualifies as a motorcycle instead of a car. It doesn't have to have the kind of bumpers and such that regulations demand of automobiles; safety isn't an issue, however, because the passenger compartment is built to formula race car crash cage specs.
Before we get too excited about this, bear in mind that Accelerated Composites hasn't yet finished a prototype version -- the Aptera currently exists only in computer designs. A variety of factors could reduce the overall fuel efficiency of the vehicle: it may need more weight for wind safety; real world streamlining may not match computer estimates; maybe even passenger weight could reduce efficiency.
One of the most popular posts ever on WorldChanging is my "Diesel Hybrid-Electric Cars Now!" essay from early 2004, demanding that automakers produce some of their prototyped but never released high-mileage diesel hybrid designs. A diesel version of the typical gasoline-electric hybrid could get 80 miles per gallon or better, and that sounded pretty good to me.
Diesel-Electric Hypercar
From http://www.worldchanging.com
Jamais Cascio
Discover magazine has a short (two-page) but terrific interview with Amory Lovins (of Rocky Mountain Institute and Winning the Oil Endgame fame). The article has Lovins talking about his favorite subject, energy, covering subjects like the relationship between weight and efficiency, the utility of plastic resins over steel, why the Pentagon should matter to environmentalists, and just how he's managed to grow bananas in Colorado (the picture on page 2 of the interview, of Lovins holding next to a solar panel while eating a banana, is worth checking out). My favorite bit, however, has to be his beginning comment:
When I give talks about energy, the audience already knows about the problems. That's not what they've come to hear. So I don't talk about problems, only solutions. But after a while, during the question period, someone in the back will get up and give a long riff about all the bad things that are happening—most of which are basically true. There's only one way I've found to deal with that. After this person calms down, I gently ask whether feeling that way makes him more effective. As René Dubos, the famous biologist, once said, "Despair is a sin."
Posted by Jamais Cascio at January 23, 2006 02:44 PM |
TrackBack, From http://www.worldchanging.com
- Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine, designed it to run on vegetable and seed oils like hemp. In fact, when the diesel engine was first introduced at the World's Fair in 1900, it ran on peanut oil.
- Two decades later, Henry Ford was designing his Model Ts to run on ethanol made from hemp. He envisioned the entire mass-produced Model T automobile line would run on ethanol derived from crops grown in the U.S.
- Even in the 1920s, the oil industry had massive lobbying power in Washington. Lobbyists convinced policymakers to create laws favoring petroleum based fuels while disgarding the ethanol option.
- Nearly a century later, amidst oil wars in the Middle East, Global Warming, and a nearly depleted oil supply, the U.S. government is finally shifting attention to fuels that are more along the lines of Diesel and Ford's original ideas.
- In an interview with the New York Times in 1925, Henry Ford said: "The fuel of the future is going to come from fruit like that sumac out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust -- almost anything. There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented. There's enough alcohol in one year's yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for a hundred years."
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